Despite Iowa City’s reputation as a drinking destination, Gardner emphasized its lesser-known sober community. The last time Ramsey counted, she said the Iowa City and Cedar Rapids area offered over 200 recovery programs, and she remains active within several of these programs herself.

One advantage to opening a sober home in Iowa City would be its proximity to the UI Hospitals and Clinics. Gardner, who works as a nurse at UIHC, said many staff at the hospital are certified to work with those with substance use disorder.

“Merrilee and I are both nurses,” Gardner said. “I was so thrilled to find out she was a nurse because health care professionals especially have a lot of guilt and shame that goes along with their substance abuse.”

Gardner added that her and Ramsey’s experiences as nurses in recovery make them uniquely qualified to operate Iowa City’s first sober living home. Not only are they professionally trained to provide medical assistance, but they can also empathize with the problems their residents will go through.

Access to a sober living home could have drastically impacted their early recoveries, Gardner said, adding that she’s grateful the two can give the community something they lacked in their own lives.

Not everyone understands alcohol addiction as a disease that can happen to anyone, Gardner said, which leads to stigma that might make it hard to reach out for help.

Gardner was well into her 40s when she developed her addiction to alcohol, she said. At first, she said she was good at hiding it, but eventually, Gardner said her alcohol use left her in what she called a personal crisis.

“You’ve got the world by the tail, you have this wonderful family and home and career, and suddenly, you start indulging in alcohol more frequently than you ever did,” Gardner said. “And then you wake up one day, and it’s like, ‘I can’t go a day without drinking.’”

Ramsey and her husband made a pact that they would only drink on the weekends, she said.

“If you drink every day, that meant you were an alcoholic,” she added, recalling her perception at the time.

Despite this promise, Ramsey said there came a point where she would sneak downstairs to their in-home bar so she could take straight swigs of whatever was available.

Following a drunk driving accident, Ramsey’s husband admitted her to a rehab program at the Abbey Treatment Center in Bettendorf, Iowa. She hasn’t had a drop to drink since, she said.

Ramsey has been sober for five years, and Gardner for three. Even so, they both work on it every day. Ramsey said she still doesn’t know where the key to her husband’s beer fridge is, and she abstains from drinking non-alcoholic liquor as a matter of practice.

Both Ramsey and Gardner said working on IC Sober Living helps them maintain their sobriety.

“One of the cliches that goes along with recovery is that, to keep it, you have to give it away,” Gardner said.

A race to open their doors

In the early stages of IC Sober Living’s development, Ramsey and Gardner developed a tagline for their fundraising campaign: “Open your hearts so we can open our doors.”

The pair continues to write grants and connect with potential donors through events like the community night at BlackStone, a restaurant in Iowa City, on April 3. The nonprofit received 10 percent from all food orders and $1 from the bar’s signature drink made especially for the evening — a non-alcoholic strawberry margarita.

“We’re getting close,” Gardner said. “We’re generating interest. We’ve networked. We have contacts. You know, it’s just a matter of time.”

Gardner and Ramsey individually donated $7,000 in support of the cause, and several members of IC Sober Living’s board have contributed similar amounts.

Though Ramsey recently retired, she picked up hours working part-time as a nurse practitioner doing insurance assessments. Ramsey said she continues to give to the nonprofit, and around half of her earnings go straight to the sober living house.

“This is my baby, and this is my passion, and I want to see it go,” Ramsey said. “To my dying day, I won’t give up on it.”